Anyone who has started their own business or who has been running their business for years; will agree on one thing – managing time effectively is pivotal to success or making money sooner. It is as simple as that, it directly influences your results in business.

If you have just started, it goes without saying that you are most likely juggling several balls at once. Helping hands are few, so you are forced to do everything and be everything, the accountant, the marketer and the visionary, etc. You work like a ‘one man army’, it leaves you out of breath and often overwhelmed.

There are only a certain amount of hours a day and you need to optimize how you spend those hours, because time is certainly money. If you are able to chalk out a time management strategy, your productivity will increase tremendously and so will your results.

Developing time management skills and finding ways to really leverage your time, is often pushed down the list of our priorities due to pressing operational demands. If you don’t have time to create a strategy, here are 5 simple ways that you can improve your time management skills and your results.

1. Be specific about goals and how to achieve them

Always align your actions with your goals. This might sound obvious, but are you doing it? There are two parts to this tip… first you need to have clear goals that you are working towards; with deadlines. How much money do you want to make by a certain time for example.

Secondly, you need to be clear on what you should be doing every day that will lead to the achievement of your bigger goals. Don’t aimlessly take action based on what you ‘think you should’ be doing. Your goals and actions need to be connected; otherwise you will find that you work on tasks that give you a sense of accomplishment, but no real results. It all starts with creating your roadmap to success.

2. Organize yourself

Implement whatever type of system will work best for you, but you need to have some sort of structure to be organized. Getting organized is about having an organized mind, and a system which supports you to do things more effectively and efficiently. There are many time management tools that ironically, unless used properly, are actually counterproductive. So don’t be put off if what you have tried doesn’t work, it most likely doesn’t work because you have not been shown how to make it work.

3. Know where you need to improve

Nobody is perfect, while you are good at some things, you could be weak at some others. Of course we all have our blind spots, but the real question is, are you open to identifying them? There is no point in learning new time management skills, if you haven’t mastered the skills you have now. Identify your time thieves, what are you doing that is undermining your results? Be honest with yourself and focus on correcting one thing at a time. You know if you don’t manage your email well or if you procrastinate every day, now you need to do something about it.

4. Develop your awareness skills

Time management is not only related to planning, prioritizing, delegating, etc. In fact, most of your struggles to manage your time come from you, and how you are thinking. Developing awareness at times when you don’t feel like doing something, or when you fear something or resist something, will help you to manage your time better.

Why? Let’s say that you are procrastinating with certain tasks. You might be procrastinating because you aren’t actually motivated to do that task, or you aren’t actually clear on why you are doing it. Either way, unless you take time to become aware of the reasons you are behaving the way you are, you won’t be able to fix the root, the cause of the problem. Until you fix the root of the problem, you will continue to experience it and your business will suffer as a result.

5. Stay focused

Even if you have your sights set on your goals, you might find it difficult to stay focused. Just before you begin the task at hand, make it easier for yourself to stay focused. Remove distractions around you, prevent interruptions and commit to completing the task before starting something else. It is when we start and stop, when we change our focus or we give into other stimulus, that we really waste the most time. There are many ways in which you can boost your focus, go for it!

Starting a business isn’t easy, but well worth it. Don’t waste time doing things ineffectively, when the effort required to master your time, will support you in mastering your success. Often, it is not time that is lacking, but time management skills – Kirstin O’Donovan

We, like most other successful Network Marketer’s have become students of Personal Development. Without keeping on top of your mindset, conditioning your belief system and realizing that it can be done it is very difficult to be massively successful. In the continuing process of our success we have read many many books. Some have been around for a long time and are staples in every Networkers Library while others are relatively new and should be. We thought we would take a moment and share with you some of our favorite books. Each of these books has had a significant impact on us personally and our business as well.

So here we go with our top 10 reads ( it may be difficult to narrow it down to 10 ). These books are not in any order, just the 10 books we have enjoyed of late:

Personal Development – Action vs Daydreaming Personal Development (PD) is one of the hidden pillars of the successful home business and for business leaders in general. The will and drive to build success has to be sustained over time. We actually need to work harder on ourselves than we work on our business to sustain our commitment. Its about controlling and disciplining our minds and becoming more because success is not something we pursue – success is something we attract.

Attracting Success

In order for us to attract success we need to become that person that attracts success. We are not going to attract success if we are not mentally ready to attract success. At least 30 minutes of PD every day. The key here is not to look outward for excuses, fall guys or success – everything is in our hands. There is no outside force that is going to make us change. Invest in books, magazines, etc. in terms of expanding your mind and becoming more prosperous.

Also, no one book is going to answer everything for you, even if you are saying to yourself right now “YES – I have the magic Book”. YES – it is funneling ALL wisdom about everything to me right now”. What you need to look for is material that resonates and moves you the most – start there.

Because the more you do – the more/faster your circumstances will change. It’s not about working hard – it’s about becoming more. So we can achieve more. Personal Development is not an end in itself it is a tool, one of many in your tool kit. Don’t get lost in empowerment or feel good messages. PD HAS to become accompanied by action – it is NOT a replacement for your plan.

Communicate with people and tell them where you are going at every opportunity. Giving your vision a reality through declaration and then implement. Implementation is one of the hallmarks of a becoming a leader.

Being a leader is a process. We can all say the same thing but it is how we language it to our teams. This is a process we are all working to become better all the time.

Practice it — Every opportunity with your team/friends/family/etc. – tell them where you’re going. Is it frightening – YES. Why? Because you committed yourself to take action by exposing your vision to the world.

Problem Solving The only person who doesn’t have problems is in the cemetery. So all of us are and have been here. Formula for embracing problems:

We all come from backgrounds that say avoid problems FORGET THATWe need to get better at facing challenges and solving problems.

Good problem solvers and going over obstacles and being able to talk about to other people about and through it is incredibly liberating. We want to become a person to see a problem as an opportunity to get us where we want to go. We need to embrace problems and work to solve them. Obstacles, challenges, problems are all the same. Why?

The bigger the problem- the bigger the check.

Overcoming Fear

Here’s what I like you do. The great thing about PD is that when you take action you do really feel better. Start manageable and grow. Write a list of what you don’t like to do – what makes you feel uncomfortable.

This lays out action items and it puts you in control. If it we put ourselves out there – we are going to get more of we want so we need to be prepared to put ourselves out there and the first step is to make a list – make it real – get it out of our heads.

After you compiled the list – make the opportunity to do those things. In this world we all have choices – nobody’s forcing us to anything – we need to become willing to do and become more (see time management piece). Then you have to be willing to DO the things to get you where you want to go. No magic – just choice. Am I willing to do that? If you see something to be taken care of – you step up and take care of it.

In general, people are not willing to do the things which are uncomfortable – that is what keeps them where they are. A good leader is someone who is willing to do the things that make them uncomfortable. First, you do it yourself and then tell others to do the same. Your team, family, etc. is thinking the same as you used to – let them that no one is going to put an obstacle in front of them except for them. And that the faster we remove our barriers the faster we are going to move forward.

Becoming a Leader

To be a leader the best thing you can do is to be around leaders

Understand their thinking

Feel their belief and passion

Know that YOU can join them anytime YOU wish Get Committed — Don’t hold back — Willing to learn